EP1263209A2 - Halbtonrasterungsverfahren und Speichermedium - Google Patents

Halbtonrasterungsverfahren und Speichermedium Download PDF

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Publication number
EP1263209A2
EP1263209A2 EP02253822A EP02253822A EP1263209A2 EP 1263209 A2 EP1263209 A2 EP 1263209A2 EP 02253822 A EP02253822 A EP 02253822A EP 02253822 A EP02253822 A EP 02253822A EP 1263209 A2 EP1263209 A2 EP 1263209A2
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EP
European Patent Office
Prior art keywords
dot
cells
screen
color
screens
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Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Granted
Application number
EP02253822A
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English (en)
French (fr)
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EP1263209B1 (de
EP1263209A3 (de
Inventor
Makoto Miyagi
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Ricoh Co Ltd
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Ricoh Co Ltd
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Publication of EP1263209A3 publication Critical patent/EP1263209A3/de
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Publication of EP1263209B1 publication Critical patent/EP1263209B1/de
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    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
    • H04N1/00—Scanning, transmission or reproduction of documents or the like, e.g. facsimile transmission; Details thereof
    • H04N1/46—Colour picture communication systems
    • H04N1/52—Circuits or arrangements for halftone screening

Definitions

  • the present invention generally relates to halftone screening methods and storage media, and more particularly to a halftone screening method which uses halftone cells of a rectangular lattice, and a computer program for causing a computer to process image data according to such a halftone screening method.
  • FIGS. 1A and 1B are diagrams for explaining a conventional scattered dot dither type halftone cell.
  • FIG. 1B shows a case where a non-regular hexagonal halftone cell M for magenta is shifted by 1 pixel to the right and 1 pixel to the top with respect to the non-regular hexagonal halftone cell C for cyan, and a non-regular hexagonal halftone cell Y for yellow is shifted by 2 pixels to the right and 1 pixel to the bottom with respect to the non-regular hexagonal halftone cell C for cyan.
  • the dots C1, M1 and Y1 are overlapped, the positions of the dots C1, M1 and Y1 do not match and the change in the color tone is conspicuous.
  • Another and more specific object of the present invention is to provide a halftone screening method and a computer program, which can reduce the color irregularities caused by positional errors of halftone cells of each of the colors.
  • Still another object of the present invention is to provide a halftone screening method comprising the steps of (a) creating screens of a plurality of colors, each of the screens being divided into a plurality of cells; and (b) intentionally changing a dot position of certain colors within cells of the screens of the certain colors relative to a dot position of a reference color within a cell of the screen of the reference color, so as to suppress a color tone change caused by positional errors of the screens.
  • the halftone screening method of the present invention it is possible to reduce the color irregularities caused by positional errors of halftone cells of each of the colors.
  • the step (b) may shift the cells of the screens of the certain colors relative to the cells of the screen of the reference color.
  • the step (b) may rotate or turn the cells of the screens of the certain colors relative to the cells of the screen of the reference color.
  • the halftone screening method may further comprise the step of (c) detecting whether an input image is a clustered dot image or a scattered dot image where the step (b) shifts the cells of the screens of the certain colors relative to the cells of the screen of the reference color when the step (c) detects the clustered dot image, and rotates or turns the cells of the screens of the certain colors relative to the cells of the screen of the reference color when the step (c) detects the scattered dot image.
  • a further object of the present invention is to provide a computer program for causing a computer to process image data by a halftone screening method, where the program comprises a first procedure which causes the computer to create screens of a plurality of colors, each of the screens being divided into a plurality of cells; and a second procedure which causes the computer to intentionally change a dot position of certain colors within cells of the screens of the certain colors relative to a dot position of a reference color within a cell of the screen of the reference color, so as to suppress a color tone change caused by positional errors of the screens.
  • the computer-readable storage medium of the present invention it is possible to reduce the color irregularities caused by positional errors of halftone cells of each of the colors.
  • the second procedure may cause the computer to shift the cells of the screens of the certain colors relative to the cells of the screen of the reference color.
  • the second procedure causes the computer to rotate or turn the cells of the screens of the certain colors relative to the cells of the screen of the reference color.
  • the program may further comprise a third procedure which causes the computer to detect whether an input image is a clustered dot image or a scattered dot image, where the second procedure causes the computer to shift the cells of the screens of the certain colors relative to the cells of the screen of the reference color when the third procedure detects the clustered dot image, and rotate or turn the cells of the screens of the certain colors relative to the cells of the screen of the reference color when the third procedure detects the scattered dot image.
  • FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining the first embodiment of the halftone screening method
  • FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining an arrangement of a black screen in the first embodiment of the halftone screening method.
  • this first embodiment arranges the center of the halftone dot of each color away as much as possible from the dot center of other colors.
  • the cells used each have a non-regular hexagonal shape.
  • the cell of a certain color is used as a reference in determining the centers of the cells of the other colors.
  • a cyan cell C is used as the reference, and a center of a magenta cell M and a center of a yellow cell Y are arranged at mutually confronting right-angled corners of the reference cyan cell C.
  • cyan, magenta and yellow cells C, M and Y are overlapped in a normal manner without positional errors, these cyan, magenta and yellow dots C1, M1 and Y1 will not overlap.
  • the cyan, magenta and yellow dots C1, M1 and Y1 will not overlap.
  • the cyan, magenta and yellow dots C1, M1 and Y1 will overlap regardless of the positional errors of the cyan, magenta and yellow cells C, M and Y, but the number of overlapping pixels will be small in relation to the number of pixels forming each cell, thereby making a change in the color tone extremely small and negligible from the practical point of view.
  • the black screen may be arranged as shown in FIG. 3.
  • K1 denotes a black dot.
  • the center of the black cell K is set to a pixel position within this overlapping portion, and the size of the black dot K1 is increased proportionally to the tone thereof.
  • the center of the black cell that is, the black dot K1 is set to the position of the single pixel position where the cyan, magenta and yellow dots C1, M1 and Y1 overlap.
  • BG/UCR black generation and under color removal
  • a first embodiment of the computer-readable storage medium stores a computer program for causing a computer to process image data according to the first embodiment of the halftone screening method.
  • the program may be read from a recording medium which forms the computer-readable storage medium and is loaded into the computer or, downloaded from a recording medium of another computer via a communication means such as the Internet.
  • the program includes a procedure which causes the computer to arrange the center of the halftone dot of each color away as much as possible from the dot center of other colors.
  • This procedure includes at least one of the following steps or procedures.
  • Step S1 Using a reference color cell, such as the non-regular hexagonal reference cyan cell C, centers of the other cells which are the magenta cell M and the yellow cell Y in this case are arranged at mutually confronting right-angled corners of the reference cyan cell C.
  • a reference color cell such as the non-regular hexagonal reference cyan cell C
  • Step S2 When the tones of the cyan, magenta and yellow dots C1, M1 and Y1 are increased and respectively indicate the same tone, and the cyan, magenta and yellow dots C1, M1 and Y1 overlap in an overlapping portion at a certain tone, the center of the black cell K is set to a pixel position within this overlapping portion.
  • Step S3 When a background removal such as BG/UCR is performed and the cyan, magenta and yellow dots C1, M1 and Y1 overlap at a pixel position, only the black dot K1 is drawn and the cyan, magenta and yellow dots C1, M1 and Y1 are not drawn.
  • a background removal such as BG/UCR
  • FIG. 4 is a diagram showing reference non-regular hexagonal cells used in the second embodiment of the halftone screening method.
  • FIGS. 5A and 5B are diagrams for explaining screen angles in the second embodiment of the halftone screening method.
  • FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining center dots of black, cyan and magenta screens in the second embodiment of the halftone screening method.
  • a Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No.7-274015 proposes a digital halftone screening method using square cells, wherein the color irregularities caused by the positioning error of the color screens is suppressed by reproducing the color screens by setting printing angles.
  • the printing angle is set to 15 degrees for the cyan screen, 75 degrees for the magenta screen, 0 degree for the yellow screen, and 45 degrees for the black screen.
  • the dot image is least conspicuous to the human eyes when the printing angle is 45 degrees, and thus, the printing angle is normally set to 45 degrees for the black screen or, for the magenta screen when placing importance on the reproducibility of skin color.
  • the second embodiment of the halftone screening method uses non-regular hexagonal halftone cells, similar to the first embodiment of the halftone screening method.
  • the non-regular hexagonal halftone cell is created by cutting a pair of confronting corners of a square halftone cell into a pair of confronting sloping sides. Accordingly, the centers of the non-regular hexagonal halftone cells are arranged in a 45-degree direction (or -45-degree direction), along the sloping sides of the non-regular hexagonal halftone cells, as shown in FIG. 4.
  • the black screen (or the magenta screen) is regarded as the reference color screen, and the screens of other colors are rotated by an angle (or turned) and positioned with respect to the reference color screen, as shown in FIGS. 5A and 5B.
  • FIG. 5A shows the cyan screen which is rotated relative to the reference black screen
  • FIG. 5B shows the magenta screen which is further rotated with respect to the cyan screen relative to the reference black screen.
  • the intervals of the black dot K1, the cyan dot C1 and the magenta dot M1 are non-uniform as shown in FIG. 6. Accordingly, even if errors are generated in the dot positions due to mechanical vibration or the like in the color printer, a dot error at one portion will be mutually cancelled by a dot error at another portion. For this reason, the errors in the dot positions do not greatly affect the change in the color tone, and the color irregularities can be suppressed. Since artificial patterns are less conspicuous to the human eyes for the yellow screen, and the positional error of the yellow screen does not greatly affect the change in the color tone, it is possible to uses square yellow cells and a 0 degree printing angle for the yellow screen.
  • a second embodiment of the computer-readable storage medium stores a computer program for causing a computer to process image data according to the second embodiment of the halftone screening method.
  • the program may be read from a recording medium which forms the computer-readable storage medium and is loaded into the computer or, downloaded from a recording medium of another computer via a communication means such as the Internet.
  • the program includes a procedure which causes the computer to rotate color screens relative to a reference color screen.
  • This procedure includes the following steps or procedures.
  • Step SS1 Using a reference color cell, such as the non-regular hexagonal reference cell, centers of the cells of other colors are arranged at mutually confronting right-angled corners of the reference cell.
  • a reference color cell such as the non-regular hexagonal reference cell
  • Step SS2 The screens of the other colors are rotated relative to the screen of the reference color. For example, when rotating the color screen, two mutually adjacent color dots which are adjacent to a color dot which becomes the center of rotation of the color screen are selected, and the other color screens are rotated so that the color dot of each of the other color screens becomes arranged between the two mutually adjacent color dots.
  • Step SS3 The black or magenta screen may be used as the reference color screen, and the yellow screen may or may not be rotated.
  • FIG. 7 is a diagram showing square cells used in the third embodiment of the halftone screening method.
  • the cyan square cells are indicated by bold lines in FIG. 7.
  • the center magenta dot M1 of the magenta cell of the magenta screen is arranged at one corner of the square cyan cell of the cyan screen.
  • the center yellow dot Y1 of the yellow cell of the yellow screen is arranged between the center magenta dots M1 of two mutually adjacent magenta cells.
  • the center black dot K1 of the black cell of the black screen is arranged between the center cyan dots C1 of two mutually adjacent cyan cells.
  • the embodiments of the halftone screening method and computer-readable storage medium intentionally change the dot position of certain colors within cells of the certain colors relative to the dot position of a reference color within a cell of the reference color, so as to suppress the color tone change and color irregularities caused by positional errors of the color screens. This may be achieved by shifting the cells of the certain colors relative to the cells of the reference color or, by rotating or turning the cells of the certain colors relative to the cells of the reference color.
  • FIG. 8 is a flow chart for explaining a fourth embodiment of the halftone screening method according to the present invention.
  • the process shown in FIG. 8 corresponds to a process a computer is caused to carry out by a program which is stored in a fourth embodiment of the computer-readable storage medium according to the present invention.
  • a step ST1 inputs an 8-bit image data, for example.
  • a step ST2 decides whether the input image data, that is, the object, relates to a photograph. If the input image data is characters (document) and the decision result in the step ST2 is NO, a step ST3 carries out the process of the first or third embodiment described above and shifts the positions of the color cells, and carries out a dither process to output a 1-bit image data by applying the scattered dot (dither) image, and the process ends.
  • the scattered dot (dither) image the color reproducibility is improved if the overlap of the cells of different colors is small, when taking into consideration the generation of black by overlapping cyan, magenta and yellow.
  • a step ST4 carries out the process of the second embodiment described above and rotates or turns the color cells relative to the reference color cells, and carries out a dither process to output a 1-bit image data by applying the clustered dot (dither) image.
  • a step ST5 performs a black generation and under color removal (BG/UCR) with respect to the 1-bit image data output by the step ST4, and the process ends.
  • BG/UCR black generation and under color removal
  • the color reproducibility deteriorates if no screen rotation is made and the screen positions of two colors match.
  • the yellow screen does not have a large effect to the human eyes compared to the other colors, and thus, it is possible to simply shift the position of the yellow screen instead of rotating, while the screens of the other colors are rotated relative to the reference color screen.
  • FIG. 9 is a diagram for explaining tiles.
  • those parts which are the same as those corresponding parts in FIG. 2 are designated by the same reference numerals, and a description thereof will be omitted.
  • tiles are used. Each tile is made up of a plurality of cells. In FIG. 9, one tile T is indicated by a bold line.
  • the tiles are made up of a collection of cells, so that the halftone becomes continues at the tile boundary, as shown in FIG. 9. If the tiles are arranged to cover the screen (image drawing region) starting from an origin, a coordinate on the screen can be converted into a coordinate within each tile, based on a remainder which is obtained by dividing the image drawing coordinate by the size of the tile. By using such tiles which are known, it becomes unnecessary to carry out an exception process at edges of the screen.
  • FIG. 10 is a system block diagram showing a printing system employing the present invention.
  • the printing system shown in FIG. 10 includes a personal computer (PC) 101 which functions as a host unit, and a printer 102 which is connected to the personal computer 101 via a host interface (I/F) 103.
  • PC personal computer
  • I/F host interface
  • the personal computer 101 includes a known printer driver 111 which carries out a known region dividing process for dividing image data of an image into image data of each of image regions within the image.
  • the printer driver 111 supplies a print command and the image data to the BG/UCR unit 121 within the controller of the printer 102.
  • the image data supplied from the printer driver 111 to the BG/UCR unit 121 is an 8-bit RGB data.
  • the printer 102 includes a controller 120, a known print engine 130, and a known image processing unit 140.
  • the controller 120 controls the print engine 130 to print image data.
  • the image processing unit 140 carries out an edge emphasis, a smoothing and the like with respect to the image data to be printed.
  • the image processing unit 140 may be provided within the controller 120.
  • the controller 120 includes the BG/UCR unit 121, a calibration unit 122, a gamma-correction table 123, a gamma-correction unit 124, a dither data supplying unit 125, a gradation converting unit 126, and a memory 127.
  • the BG/UCR unit 121 performs the BG/UCR with respect to the 8-bit RGB (red, green, blue) data received from the printer driver 111, and supplies an 8-bit CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, black) data to the gamma-correction unit 124.
  • the gamma-correction unit 124 carries out a known gamma-correction based on data received from the gamma-table 123 under control of the calibration unit 122, and supplies an 8-bit gammacorrected CMYK data to the gradation conversion unit 126.
  • the gradation conversion unit 126 carries out a gradation conversion based on dither data received from the dither data supplying unit 125, and output a 1-bit CMYK data which is stored in the memory 127.
  • the basic structure of the controller 120 is known, except that the dither data supplying unit 125 supplies the dither data which has been subjected to the halftone screening process of the present invention.
  • the image processing unit 140 carries out an image processing, such as the edge emphasis and the smoothing, with respect to the 1-bit CMYK data read from the memory 127 and to be printed by the print engine 130.
  • the dither data supplying unit 125 is provided within the controller 120, and may be realized by a memory which prestores the dither data which has been subjected to the halftone screening process of the present invention.
  • the dither data to be stored in this memory may be calculated by the printing system, such as the personal computer 101 or a processor (not shown) which is provided within the controller 120 or is externally connected to the controller 120.
  • the dither data to be stored in this memory may be calculated by the manufacturer of the printing system, and prestored in this memory.

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  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Multimedia (AREA)
  • Signal Processing (AREA)
  • Facsimile Image Signal Circuits (AREA)
  • Color Image Communication Systems (AREA)
  • Image Processing (AREA)
  • Color, Gradation (AREA)
EP02253822A 2001-05-30 2002-05-30 Halbtonrasterungsverfahren und Speichermedium Expired - Lifetime EP1263209B1 (de)

Applications Claiming Priority (4)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
JP2001162682 2001-05-30
JP2001162682 2001-05-30
JP2001232336A JP2003051954A (ja) 2001-05-30 2001-07-31 ハーフトーンスクリーニング方法及びコンピュータプログラム並びに情報記録媒体
JP2001232336 2001-07-31

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EP1263209A2 true EP1263209A2 (de) 2002-12-04
EP1263209A3 EP1263209A3 (de) 2004-11-10
EP1263209B1 EP1263209B1 (de) 2012-01-11

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EP (1) EP1263209B1 (de)
JP (1) JP2003051954A (de)

Cited By (2)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
WO2005046215A1 (en) * 2003-11-11 2005-05-19 Eudes Dantas Tetrastich screening process for cmky printing
EP3296117A4 (de) * 2015-05-15 2018-08-15 FUJIFILM Corporation Bilderzeugungsverfahren

Families Citing this family (2)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
JP3787036B2 (ja) * 1998-12-28 2006-06-21 株式会社リコー スクリーニング方法
JP4311427B2 (ja) * 2006-09-19 2009-08-12 セイコーエプソン株式会社 画像処理回路，階調変換方法及び印刷装置

Citations (1)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
DE3606427A1 (de) 1985-02-28 1986-08-28 Konishiroku Photo Industry Co. Ltd., Tokio/Tokyo Bilderzeugungsverfahren und -vorrichtung

Family Cites Families (3)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US4752822A (en) 1983-03-08 1988-06-21 Canon Kabushiki Kaisha Color halftone image processing apparatus producing various screen angles and having an adaptive color image data conversion look-up table and a small-capacity masking memory
US5394252A (en) 1994-03-02 1995-02-28 Xerox Corporation Hybrid quantization method for color document reproduction
US6128099A (en) 1995-06-08 2000-10-03 Delabastita; Paul A. Halftone screen generator, halftone screen and method for generating same

Patent Citations (1)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
DE3606427A1 (de) 1985-02-28 1986-08-28 Konishiroku Photo Industry Co. Ltd., Tokio/Tokyo Bilderzeugungsverfahren und -vorrichtung

Cited By (3)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
WO2005046215A1 (en) * 2003-11-11 2005-05-19 Eudes Dantas Tetrastich screening process for cmky printing
EP3296117A4 (de) * 2015-05-15 2018-08-15 FUJIFILM Corporation Bilderzeugungsverfahren
US10137699B2 (en) 2015-05-15 2018-11-27 Fujifilm Corporation Image forming method

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
US20020191203A1 (en) 2002-12-19
US7099043B2 (en) 2006-08-29
EP1263209B1 (de) 2012-01-11
EP1263209A3 (de) 2004-11-10
JP2003051954A (ja) 2003-02-21

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